monday was so long ago, but I know we did spelling, math , and reading in the morning and that I went grocery shopping with a menu list and painted window frames after the girls went to bed.

tuesday involved school clothes shopping with a generous friend, some babysitting of nephews, and dinner at tania's.

wednesday: spelling, math, and quiet reading before lunch, history after, then visited with Cote at their house, cleaned up house, then had new neighbor friend with her 3 girls come over, had carrot cupcakes and tea and she brought fresh challah.

thursday: read about the hanging gardens of babylon from history online. made connections with current physics project (pump system for getting the water from the euphrates up the fake mountain), girls made paintings about the gardens, I went to the gym, made fettucine with chicken and herbs and tomatoes from garden, Mary and kids stopped by for a lovely last minute visit, worked on physics project, went to Amy's for dinner and visit.

friday: read book about Maria Tallchief over breakfast, girls drew pictures about their future dreams: Charlotte -ballet, Eleanor -horses, math, spelling, (spellingcity.com). its 11:30 now and I'm taking a little break and trying to get organized.

Gracie has been making "school" difficult lately. She has her own math pages, tracing numbers and recognizing them, and uses starfall for letters, but she has an exceptionally demanding personality and between her yelling and the other girls' bickering, I feel like I'm earning my keep.

Been getting up with the dog at 6:30 every morning. Feels good. This morning I took care of the dog and did dishes before anyone got up. Her name is up for grabs still. Chris hated Alice, the girls like Ramona now, ...maybe Mabel.